TIAFF: Mole Man

The film follows Ron, a 66-year-old autistic man with an extraordinary talent for building. For fifty years, he has been constructing a vast system of tunnels, basements and rooms (equivalent in size to 25 houses) in the garden of his parents’ home. Without nails, mortar or any measuring device, Ron builds using found materials collected from the forests surrounding his home in western Pennsylvania.

When Ron’s father dies and he is left alone with his 91-year-old mother, his siblings must decide what is best for him. There is no satisfactory answer: placing him in an institution would be cruel, but leaving him entirely to his own devices is equally heartbreaking. Mole Man is both a portrait of a remarkable individual and a commentary on a system that leaves little room for those who fall outside the “norm”.